Thursday, 9 March 2023

Ministers statements: medical research

Daniel ANDREWS (Mulgrave – Premier) (14:30): I am delighted to join with my colleagues today in speaking about medical research, advanced technology, changing lives, saving lives, creating jobs, creating wealth and making sure more of that value chain is here in the great state of Victoria. This morning the Minister for Health and Minister for Medical Research and I were at the Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery down at St Vincent’s, and I want to thank all the staff of St V’s – all of them. They do such an amazing job providing care and support, often to the most vulnerable patients, across our city and indeed with services right across our state.

We made this commitment some time ago, $60 million as part of a $206 million precinct that is unique in the world, to have a hospital combined with medical research and biomedical engineering, making, devising, building and ultimately manufacturing at scale digitally printed prostheses and all manner of other important implantable devices. The best of manufacturing, the best of engineering and the best of science to provide the best of care – that is what this is all about. It is not a $60 million cost; it is a profound investment in changing lives, changing our world potentially and creating jobs along the way. There are all the partners, whether it be the University of Melbourne, RMIT, the Australian Catholic University, the Bionics Institute or of course the Aikenhead Centre and its staff and also St Vincent’s Health and the St Vincent’s Foundation.

This is a profound investment, and it is just one part of a comprehensive agenda that has had more than $1.3 billion of investment since 2014. The best part of 30,000 livelihoods depend upon this, with $21 billion worth of economic output each and every year. We back science. We put our faith in science. We do not cuddle up to people who could not spell ‘science’, let alone follow it. We get on and make the investments that change lives, change our world and create jobs and opportunities along the way.